Episode 129: Mailbag, Julio Finally Turning A Corner Offensively And Analyzing The Impact Of Luke Raley

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[00:00:41] Welcome to episode number 129 of the Marine Layer Podcast. We have our two Mariner storylines.

[00:00:47] We'll talk about Julio's offensive progression at the plate and

[00:00:51] Luke Railey coming into his own as a Mariner. We'll answer some of your guys' questions

[00:00:55] in our mailbag segment and we'll close out the show with Speak Your Mind.

[00:01:21] $4.00

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[00:02:09] And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine layer podcast, part of the Just Baseball

[00:02:13] podcast network recording Thursday evening on May 16th. And Lyle and I are going to fight

[00:02:20] a minor league baseball team. Let's just lay it all out. Fuck the salt lake bees. Plain

[00:02:26] and simple. Yeah. What organization are they part of? Well, hmm, let's see. Certainly one

[00:02:32] that's well run. Certainly one that has a great reputation across the league. Certainly

[00:02:37] one not prone for starting fights. Who could that be? Oh, sorry. My bad. Is it the angels?

[00:02:42] Oh, it is. Oh, funny. Funny. Yeah. Sorry to the salt lake bees, but they're yeah,

[00:02:49] we're squaring up like it's happening in case you missed it and haven't been online

[00:02:54] in the last 24 hours. JP Crawford was probably an at bat away from returning to the big leagues

[00:03:00] in AAA. He's probably his final at bat on Wednesday of his rehab assignment and he gets

[00:03:06] hit in the hand. And now we don't know when he's coming back. He's got a sore hand.

[00:03:12] Doesn't sound like he broke anything, but the salt lake bees are now on our shit list

[00:03:16] for preventing us from seeing JP Crawford for at least another series or two.

[00:03:21] I don't think it's that long. Okay, series. He didn't as here's the information we have

[00:03:28] is as time of recording here on Thursday evening. He didn't fly to Baltimore here on Thursday.

[00:03:33] The Mariner said they're unsure when he's going to join the team. They are not concerned with

[00:03:37] that. They said Daniel Kramer reported that saying he seems to have avoided a serious

[00:03:41] injury. It's not going to land him on the IL again or anything for an extended period of

[00:03:46] time. However, he's just delayed a couple days. It sounds like so he should be back in action

[00:03:51] soon enough. However, we were all expecting it to be here on Friday. It's not going to be on

[00:03:54] Friday. Which position are you going to go after first in the fight? Are you going after

[00:04:00] the pitchers? I feel like that's easy prey. Okay, here's low key the problem with actually

[00:04:05] getting in a fight with the Salt Lake bees. I kind of have an old friend that's on the

[00:04:09] Salt Lake bees, so I'm going to have to stay away from him and maybe fight everybody else.

[00:04:13] Yeah, who hit him again? It was Adam Kolarik. Who's had a long big league career as a reliever and

[00:04:20] now is in AAA? Maybe him. I'm going to pick out the smallest guy because it's probably the one I

[00:04:25] match up with the most. When you look at me and my physical profile, I don't exactly have

[00:04:31] let's say like a big league body. We'll say that. I'm more of a Dustin Pedroia,

[00:04:38] let's see, like a shorter version of Bryan Anderson. I would say it's probably my comp.

[00:04:44] To say that I would actually succeed in any sort of fight with a big league athlete

[00:04:51] might be tough. Are you telling me I have a big league body? More than I do.

[00:04:56] Are big leaguers smaller than you? Well, how nice of you, Tej. It's nice of you to say.

[00:05:02] It's well, maybe how far can my athleticism go? Could I beat a big leaguer in a race?

[00:05:07] That's a good question. Probably not. You're not that fast.

[00:05:11] I mean, I'm not like crazy fast. I ran an okay 60 time in high school, but like,

[00:05:15] yeah, like could I be faster you now? I would imagine it's not that different.

[00:05:21] I think my 60 time in high school again, it was nothing crazy. It was like

[00:05:25] seven to I want to say, but I don't know. A bullpen arm. I don't know.

[00:05:31] I don't even know how because I probably like bulked up a little maybe not.

[00:05:37] And like I know you've probably bulked up a little bit more than I have. My weight really

[00:05:40] doesn't fluctuate that much. So I probably but I don't run anymore. So, you know,

[00:05:45] I'm probably just slow. So I'm just thinking of like the physical advantages I would have on

[00:05:51] anyone on the Salt Lake Bees. I mean, unless we get to the manager, it's like,

[00:05:56] I'm not like my chances, but we need to try anyway because we're going to stand up for JP

[00:06:00] Crawford. Yes, we are. I'm just going to avoid my old friend who his names you'll remember

[00:06:06] the name. His name is Bryce Tito CEO. He was he played at Clemson. He was in the Cape

[00:06:10] League when we were in the Cape League with the team I was with and he's big. So I'm not

[00:06:14] going after him. He's big. He's strong. He's fast. And he's a really good athlete.

[00:06:17] So not him. Like you said, maybe we'll go after the pitchers or or the manager, like we said,

[00:06:23] because because everything can always go back to the manager, right? Just like how the Jesse

[00:06:27] Winker fight was all Phil Nevins fault. And that's actually backs. Well, you're leaving

[00:06:31] out number one Anthony Rendon. Anthony Rendon. Would he even would he even step out of the

[00:06:37] dugout or would he not be in the mood that day? I feel like he'd be in the mood to fight.

[00:06:42] The funny thing is if we wait long enough, we would get Anthony Rendon in Salt Lake.

[00:06:49] No, we're not. You think you think he's getting back on the field this year? That guy doesn't

[00:06:52] want to be playing baseball eventually though when he has to do a rehab assignment. That's

[00:06:56] where he'll be again. You're under the assumption he wants to keep playing baseball this year.

[00:07:01] Let's give him incentive and this isn't baseball. You might actually like swinging

[00:07:05] it guys. You sure liked sucker punching during a fight. Well, that's true. Anyway, let's hope

[00:07:11] J.P. Crawford gets back here in the next couple of days. I would think that he would.

[00:07:16] The reports seem to be OK. However, it was a scary, scary sight when everybody saw that

[00:07:20] video on Twitter on Wednesday night of him getting hit in the hand with that ball. Not good.

[00:07:25] Let's get into our Mariners storylines and let's start off with something that

[00:07:29] could be scarier if we continue to see progression from one Julio Rodriguez at

[00:07:33] the plate. There's some definitive truths out there of what Julio Rodriguez has done at the

[00:07:37] plate this season. It's not been good enough so far. The power has been non-existent,

[00:07:42] but I really think that we have seen some tangible differences from him at the plate.

[00:07:47] In those offseason things that he was working on, we're starting to see the progress here in May.

[00:07:53] Yeah, we are and we're going to look at a really small sample here. But first off,

[00:07:57] I think it's fair to say when that ball left the yard on Mother's Day, you could feel just

[00:08:03] a sigh of relief throughout the whole fan base, the whole region. It's like, oh,

[00:08:08] there we go. Julio. This can be the turning point. He finally leaves the yard. It just felt like,

[00:08:15] did it not feel like such a weight lifted off everybody's shoulders to see him leave the yard,

[00:08:19] including his first and foremost? Yeah, it felt like a weight off of...

[00:08:25] It's gotten to the point where if a home run leaves and you don't see who hit it,

[00:08:29] in past seasons we would assume Julio Rodriguez would have a pretty good chance but not this

[00:08:32] season. He's one of the few guys on the team that can hit a ball like that over that fence

[00:08:39] with that kind of authority. We just want to see him get to the point where he's doing that

[00:08:45] more and more and more often. I think in May, he is starting to unlock some things. It's

[00:08:50] not perfect but he's starting to look at least a little bit more like the Julio Rodriguez

[00:08:55] we were expecting to see. If he tweaks a couple more things, I think we have a chance

[00:08:59] to see the best version of him. Do you know what's amazing? You look at the raw numbers.

[00:09:04] He's got a 113 WRC plus this month, which is good. It's not ceiling level Julio offensive

[00:09:11] production but it's better than what he has been doing. There are some other things too

[00:09:17] that are actually remarkably good about what he's doing this month. His average

[00:09:23] eggs of velocity this month is 96 miles an hour. That's elite. Elite, elite. Plus, plus, plus

[00:09:28] in average eggs of velocity. He's doing that while not swinging and missing quite as much.

[00:09:32] That's a pretty dangerous combination to have as a hitter. I'm just thinking back to the

[00:09:37] conversation we had preseason. We're sitting here on our preseason predictions episode. It's

[00:09:41] like, okay, Julio overseals steals except for me. Julio over home runs. He might hit 40.

[00:09:46] He's probably not hitting 40 at this point but there were reasons we thought he would hit 40

[00:09:50] home runs. We thought he was going to swing and miss less, swing up more pitches in the

[00:09:55] strike zone and elevate a lot more while continuing to hit the ball just as hard.

[00:09:59] We're starting to see some of that this month and that could mean big trouble

[00:10:03] as he starts elevating the baseball more. Even in his last five games, which small sample,

[00:10:10] but he is, or I'm sorry, in three of his last four contests, let's go there.

[00:10:14] Seven for his last 15, two extra base hits. It's a double on a home run. That double

[00:10:17] almost left the yard. That was on Sunday too. But then in his last five games, he's only struck

[00:10:23] out three times, 20 plate appearances, three strikeouts, small sample. We need to see more

[00:10:28] of it but we're starting to see things round into form a little bit more. It's not all going

[00:10:33] to happen overnight. It's not all going to happen with the snap of a finger but it's

[00:10:36] certainly felt like Sunday has a chance to be a massive turning point and the games following

[00:10:44] while there hasn't been additional power that we've seen in game yet, he's still racking up

[00:10:50] multi-hit outings and you're seeing much, much better at bats. Julio is a 100th percentile level

[00:10:57] hitter. He is the 100th percentile of your average big league player at the plate. That's

[00:11:03] the kind of offensive upside he has. But I want to just give some context for what

[00:11:08] the league offense is this year. When you're looking at Julio's slash line and you're like,

[00:11:12] oh Julio's even in a good month, Lyle with a 113 WRC plus, you know his slugging percentage?

[00:11:18] It's 365. To say it's not high. A 113 WRC plus slugging percentage is 365. 13% better than

[00:11:28] league average is the number. I'm like that cannot be right. That physically cannot be

[00:11:33] right that the offense is this far down but the league's slash this year is 239 312 385.

[00:11:42] I think the mounds are getting moved back here in the next five years.

[00:11:44] Something's got to change. Even if like a 160 WRC plus this year is like an 870, 880?

[00:11:57] So Julio could have the outlier best season of his year by WRC plus and it would

[00:12:02] we'd sit there and be like, man I feel like he's got a thousand in there somewhere.

[00:12:07] Well not if the league keeps trending like this in terms of pitchers which again,

[00:12:11] I don't know what the solution is. I don't know if it's bringing back the juice baseballs,

[00:12:14] bringing back the juice baseballs doesn't please do it. Please do it. But okay so here's the only

[00:12:19] thing about that. Bringing back the juice baseballs does not help hitters make contact.

[00:12:23] It's just when you make contact it'll travel further. So if it's an issue of swing and miss

[00:12:30] and pitchers just overpowering hitters isn't the only solution to move the mound back.

[00:12:36] I don't know what else you do. Mr. Lyle Goldstein can I entice you in a 60 homer Julio Rodriguez season?

[00:12:43] Yes you can. Oh well. But again juice baseballs don't help hitters make contact.

[00:12:51] It's a swing and miss issue in baseball right now. Pitchers are way ahead of hitters right

[00:12:55] now because the stuff is as good as it's ever been. Well I know the suggestion from a lot

[00:13:01] of people out there is that they should just bunt more. I think that would bring back the

[00:13:05] contact era. Yeah like maybe it I like how far would it have to go for them to actually move

[00:13:14] the mound back? Like I don't know. So I think the product would have to get to the point where

[00:13:20] it's unwatchable. I think you and I both don't think the product right now is unwatchable.

[00:13:26] No it's not. Like offense is down but unwatchable no. I think for a change that

[00:13:32] drastic to be made the product would have to be just so obscenely terrible. Like we're talking

[00:13:37] peak 1960s dead ball for them to do something about this which we're not at. Yeah yeah we're

[00:13:44] not and maybe that's a conversation for down the road but if you're talking about Julio

[00:13:48] just as a whole and starting to turn things around again small sample he still needs to

[00:13:54] barrel it up a little bit more than he's doing because he's still hitting the ball hard

[00:13:58] but the launch angle is not there. The barrels aren't there because he's not elevating the

[00:14:02] baseball enough yet. He's hitting the ball hard no elevation. If you look at his expected slug

[00:14:07] numbers his barrel percentage again his launch angle percentage like sweet spot and the

[00:14:13] differences from his first couple of years even last year to right now it's a pretty

[00:14:17] drastic difference. That's that's the whole key. He has got to start elevating the baseball

[00:14:22] and everybody knows that. Elevating the baseball and he's got to take advantage of fastballs

[00:14:25] because he's still not doing enough of that yet. Those are the keys. If he starts doing that

[00:14:30] you're going to see more peak form Julio. And there's been some improvements that would

[00:14:35] again lead us to suggest that some of that is coming. He's just flat out in the zone

[00:14:40] and out of the zone he's swinging missing less which is a good sign and it's near

[00:14:45] I would guess lows of his career even though it's a small sample within a month but

[00:14:49] I mean everything across the board in whiff, in-zone whiff, barrel percentage, hard hit

[00:14:54] percentage, quality of contact. His fly ball rate went up 50% from April to May. That's good

[00:15:02] 50%. It's not going to keep going up 50% but you know it's 21% in April it's 32.5%

[00:15:09] in May so yeah like it's coming at some point and he's also walking because the

[00:15:17] he was not walking at all in April which is a problem and we'll talk about that with our

[00:15:22] next storyline too with our next candidate here but when you're not walking at all it is really

[00:15:27] hard to have offensive success because pitchers know you're eventually going to chase something

[00:15:31] out of the strike zone which Julio has done this year but done a lot less recently. There's

[00:15:36] another problem with Julio I mean righties are just eating him alive they've been eating

[00:15:41] him alive this entire season he's he's not a platoon back but he's certainly heading like

[00:15:46] a platoon back this season he's got a 149 wrc plus against lefties and a 73 wrc plus against

[00:15:52] righties just like a barely a big league caliber bat right now against right-handed pitching.

[00:15:59] Yeah and there's another there's another item on the checkbox that's going to have to get

[00:16:04] solved you can't be a platoon bat making the money that he's making being important to

[00:16:09] the being as important to the team as he is and that hasn't been a problem in years past

[00:16:14] he hasn't had drastic splits like that in years past so you would think that'll stabilize but

[00:16:20] that's you're right that's not a good sign through the first six weeks and again his

[00:16:24] numbers wouldn't be that bad against right-handed pitching if he was getting on top of fastballs

[00:16:29] but when right-handers when right-handers start to get ahead of the count against Julio

[00:16:33] that's when he starts to see the big breaking balls away and we know he chases those sliders

[00:16:37] low and away he starts to see the splitters and the change-ups in the dirt and it gets

[00:16:42] him through the first six weeks it's gotten the best of them a little bit and that's going to

[00:16:46] have it's all encompassing of what's going to have to turn around for Julio here look

[00:16:52] it's great that he's a little more balanced it seems these days in the box because

[00:16:57] we've heard Ryan Davis talk about that was part of the problem that he was off balance

[00:17:00] he didn't seem like he was on time with a lot of things but yes you can't be a platoon

[00:17:06] bat if you're Julio Rodriguez you're gonna have to start turning it around I'm sure he's

[00:17:11] going to soon enough but you want to see less of those breaking balls low and away

[00:17:16] you got to take advantage of the heaters and there's one like stat like if there's a stat

[00:17:22] that really jumped out to me and it certainly plays into exactly what we've been talking

[00:17:27] about with him being on time I don't think there's anything that defines being on time

[00:17:31] more than your ability to pull the baseball because that's where you do the most damage

[00:17:34] Julio has been pretty good in his career at pulling line drives pulling them in the corner

[00:17:39] pulling them into the left center gap or just hitting it hard through the left side of the

[00:17:43] infield he's doing that at half the rate he's done that in his career right now half which

[00:17:49] is it's oh it's almost like an outlier low number of his ability to pull the baseball

[00:17:54] and that's a big reason why his power is down your everyone every single hitter on earth's

[00:17:58] best powers to the pole side and you know frankly he's just not doing it so it's it's

[00:18:04] something he's gonna have to do there's another like incredibly puzzling thing that popped

[00:18:08] up this week that was I think brought to my attention and you saw I'm sure you saw this too

[00:18:14] with in terms of what Julio's done at the plate but also on the base paths which is sort of the

[00:18:19] over aggressiveness at times Julio right now is a 98th percentile runner in sprint speed

[00:18:25] incredibly fast bail in the top two percent of baseball in terms of being fast he is 14th

[00:18:31] percentile in base running run value the outs he's created on the bases

[00:18:37] it getting himself out has been awful and that's something that should be easily fixable and just

[00:18:44] plain and simple shouldn't be happening when he got picked off to end the game against the

[00:18:47] Cubs when he came in as a pinch runner to a couple of the plays this past week

[00:18:52] like the the offensive woes are one thing I'm not saying anybody should be thrilled about

[00:18:57] the offensive woes but it does happen to even the best of hitters base running woes those are just

[00:19:03] self-inflicted there's nothing to look at with the data or the underlying numbers with base

[00:19:08] running woes he's just got to be more careful on the base paths it's that simple you can't

[00:19:13] be getting picked off like that and you get six seven hundred opportunities at the plate to

[00:19:18] correct things you mess up you don't get those opportunities on the base paths no you

[00:19:22] get a small fraction of those and when you do mess up on the base paths it gets an awful

[00:19:27] flight a whole lot more than just swinging and missing at a pitch out of the zone so

[00:19:31] you know it's really been a complicated season so far for Julio Rodriguez it's been disappointing

[00:19:36] certainly because the Mariners need him to be the best player and more likely than not far

[00:19:42] in a way the best player on this team for them to reach their absolute potential because

[00:19:46] that's the kind of talent he does he has but then again for the third consecutive season

[00:19:52] Julio comes out of the gate slow and we're seeing new issues pop up that people are not

[00:19:56] used to seeing with him with the lack of power and the sloppiness on the base paths and the

[00:20:00] chasing and things you would expect a third year big leaguer and a third year superstar to fix

[00:20:07] and now as we go throughout the month of May we're going to the the Mariners are going to

[00:20:10] the east coast they'll be in Baltimore when this episode comes out on Friday some good

[00:20:14] hitters environments against not great pitching staffs with the weather warming up as well

[00:20:20] this is the time where we expect Julio Rodriguez to turn the corner because

[00:20:24] in reality if we you just want to think of it in the simplistic terms I mean Julio is two

[00:20:30] power sapped weeks away from entering June 1st with two home runs

[00:20:34] how are that how are the Mariners supposed to be good in that with that how are you

[00:20:38] supposed to make up that production you can't and imagine where the Mariners would be

[00:20:42] right now if Julio was playing like Prime Julio the Mariners are in first place the

[00:20:46] pitching rotation has been unbelievable as we've talked about countless times as everybody has

[00:20:51] where would the Mariners be right now Julio had just gotten off to a hot start and played like

[00:20:55] Prime Julio they'd have the record that looked like the Royals record entering the series like

[00:20:59] they would be significantly better and they'd have a bigger lead on first place it is really

[00:21:04] hard for the great teams to be great without their best players being great it is all it

[00:21:10] is like almost impossible and it's like and and people could this is this would be the

[00:21:14] opportunity for people to come out and say well Jerry should have just added more in the

[00:21:17] offseason so not all the pressures on Julio no the pressures on Julio is because he's supposed

[00:21:21] to be good and he's being paid to be that good right and you know it no executive no manager

[00:21:28] can anticipate the elite production in their lineup not being so like you you just expect

[00:21:34] that it should be a given that Aaron Judge is going to be great it should be a given that

[00:21:38] Kyle Tucker is going to be great it should be a given that the picture superstar Bobby

[00:21:43] Witt's going to be amazing it should be expected at that point so when the when the lack of

[00:21:47] production then comes along everyone's sort of left scrambling the Braves expected Ronald

[00:21:53] Acuna to be Ronald Acuna he's not doing it right now it's the same thing you can't prepare

[00:21:57] for that you can argue especially after the year he had last year I'm not saying I'd put

[00:22:02] him over Shohei but you can argue Ronald Acuna was the best player in baseball or is

[00:22:06] you cannot you cannot prepare despite the Braves having a much deeper lineup with a bunch

[00:22:11] of superstar bats doesn't matter you cannot prepare for the best player on your team and

[00:22:16] arguably one of the best players in the entire league to come out like this you just can't

[00:22:20] prepare for that and there's no player you can add that can neutralize that it just it just

[00:22:27] doesn't work like how good are the Dodgers right now Shohei is putting up Julio Slash

[00:22:32] they're probably it's probably similar to the Mariners they're probably still in first place

[00:22:36] because that's another loaded lineup but they're they're they don't look like the

[00:22:41] Dodgers that they're playing like right now it's not the offense that they're playing like right

[00:22:45] now because that's the best hitter in baseball that's not hitting like the best hitter in

[00:22:48] baseball right it's hard to make up so you know eventually the corner has been it looked

[00:22:54] like it looks like it's being turned for Julio Rodriguez now it's time to to now it's time to

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[00:23:44] storyline here Luke Railey welcome to the party welcome to the freaking party Luke Railey that's

[00:23:51] all I can say this dude was essentially in the doghouse the first couple weeks of the

[00:23:55] season you barely saw him in the lineup now he's hitting like the best now he's hitting

[00:23:59] like the best hitter in the Mariners lineup over the last couple weeks injuries aren't a good

[00:24:04] thing right I think all of us would rather see that all the Mariners best players healthy on

[00:24:08] the roster at the same time but Luke Railey's playing time with a healthy Mariners roster

[00:24:13] does it probably doesn't come up doesn't pop up like I think if everyone had just stayed

[00:24:18] healthy on this roster we wouldn't be sitting here talking about Luke Railey right now plain

[00:24:21] and simple the playing time had to be so like the plane that like the injuries probably needed

[00:24:28] to happen to see the playing time for Luke Railey as crummy as that is to say for the

[00:24:32] injury factor of Dom Canzone it was great to get him back on Wednesday but Luke Railey's

[00:24:36] not playing as much without that and he doesn't get the opportunity to come into a

[00:24:40] new organization and get comfortable which I think a lot of people need to remember that

[00:24:43] Luke Railey essentially you know gets traded across the country from Tampa Florida to Seattle

[00:24:49] Washington to oh by the way here you go let's uh you're you're gonna be part of a platoon

[00:24:55] you're not gonna be playing full time you're gonna need to and get comfortable on the fly

[00:24:58] by the way and that's that's a lot to take in it's a lot to take in with the surroundings

[00:25:02] with his commute to work with uh you know just familiarity of the area overall it's a

[00:25:07] lot to take in so the first month can be sort of overwhelming but as soon as he gets

[00:25:13] inserted into the lineup and he gets regular playing time I mark his regular playing time

[00:25:18] counter starting on April 21st since that moment he has a 165 wrc plus and that's

[00:25:25] amazing to see for Luke Railey and gives them an even more valuable option to have now

[00:25:31] to stash on their roster having a big league hitter who has now found his groove at the

[00:25:36] plate while probably not playing in a full-time role once everyone gets healthy.

[00:25:41] Luke really has a 117 wrc plus for the year imagine saying that two three weeks ago

[00:25:48] he was barely playing he wasn't putting together good at bats it was all kind of a mess and

[00:25:53] nobody could really understand why he wasn't getting the necessary time part of it was

[00:25:58] probably because Hanager and Kanzone were off to such great starts but when Luke really gets

[00:26:04] going look at what he does for the offense we keep talking about Jorge Polanco and Mitch

[00:26:09] Garver those are the two most important bats San Julio Rodriguez on paper for this team.

[00:26:16] Luke Railey was an 824 OPS guy last year 824 in the first half Luke Railey was destroying

[00:26:26] the ball for the race I know he had a little bit of a down second half but he was crushing

[00:26:30] the ball in the first half like over a 900 OPS crushing the ball that's a valuable bat

[00:26:36] Luke Railey was not brought in here just to be a bench guy Luke really was brought in here to

[00:26:42] be an impact bat now we're seeing Luke Railey be an impact bat and if you want to look at his

[00:26:47] last 15 games he's got a 1078 OPS in that time he's hitting the ball hard he's hitting

[00:26:53] the ball out of the yard and he looks just flat out locked in. We love to see it we do

[00:27:01] now is it sustainable? Some of the savant numbers still aren't great I do wonder how much of that

[00:27:10] is because he got off to the slow start the fact he's basically not walking at all is not

[00:27:15] a great sign. The strikeouts we may have to live with because he's always kind of been a

[00:27:21] strikeout guy they acquired him knowing that however him walking just over three percent of

[00:27:26] the time that's got to come up a little bit yeah it's going to come up and like it just

[00:27:31] got to there needs to be like so he's hitting right now but eventually like things ebb and flow

[00:27:37] and the problem with a profile like this like if you're you're hitting it's great because the

[00:27:44] power will be there and as we've seen this weekend him swatting home runs over the fence

[00:27:49] it's all great but if he's not say having enough damage swings he's hitting into some

[00:27:53] bad luck there is not many other peripherals if he's not putting bat to ball and crushing

[00:28:00] bat to ball which even again the best hitters can't do every single time there's not much

[00:28:05] else being added so that's why I think it's actually good on his part that he's made himself

[00:28:10] so valuable at so many different spots he's played all three outfield positions this season

[00:28:15] he's now played first base he's actually plus in both the corner outfields and at first base

[00:28:21] on drs he's been plus this year which is good to see Algebra average has him minus one

[00:28:27] you can live with minus one that's not the end of the world and as scott service said

[00:28:31] luke rayleigh kind of looks awkward doing every single thing he does but he makes it happen

[00:28:36] and it works so you just live with it so it's it's good that he has showcased the

[00:28:41] versatility we sort of anticipated coming into this season that he can play three outfield

[00:28:45] spots he can play first base and again if he can just walk a little bit just walk a little

[00:28:50] bit give scott service a reason to keep you in the lineup even if you're not hitting home

[00:28:55] runs right think of a guy like dylan more so demo plays a lot of positions look at me

[00:29:01] gassing up demo for you who who could have thought we absolutely love to see it so demo

[00:29:07] plays a lot of positions he strikes out a lot and he hits home runs but what else does

[00:29:11] dylan more do what lial he walks he walks he walks he walks you can also place the

[00:29:16] left side of the infield which really helps well it keeps him on the big league roster

[00:29:20] just naming off those those valuable skills that he can bring if luke rayleigh doesn't walk it's

[00:29:27] again just harder if the if he's not hot hitting the baseball but what if he's actually

[00:29:35] turning a corner here could be in in the in this month he's walking nine percent of

[00:29:41] the time which is nice it's good we we love our sample sizes so probably like to see a larger

[00:29:46] sample than that but it's been good and even if we even if we shrink it or expand it just a tiny

[00:29:53] bit to when i like i said april 21st i think is when he really started playing regularly

[00:29:59] his walk rate since since five percent which you'd probably want to see that up at like seven

[00:30:03] to eight percent like just get up to seven or eight that would be good but his strikeout

[00:30:07] rate you could live with at that point it's 24.6 percent you could totally live with that

[00:30:13] that's a good mark for this current team right now and given rayleigh's power profile you'll

[00:30:19] totally live with 24 24 about league average maybe slightly above it's perfectly fine and

[00:30:27] i think for what he's doing right now also with canzone back i'd be playing rayleigh just

[00:30:33] about every day at this point i may like i think this is where you can finally transition

[00:30:40] mitch hanniger to get him off his feet a little bit more i don't think anybody thought mitch was

[00:30:45] going to be playing this much when he was acquired now that rayleigh's hitting now that

[00:30:49] canzone's back i think it's time for mitch to evolve into the role that we kind of thought

[00:30:55] he was going to be in play a couple times a week against lefties serves as a very good

[00:30:59] bench bat but otherwise like that's his role because that's how you can best utilize mitch

[00:31:05] and make sure he doesn't get injured where luke rayleigh's hitting like this again you can make

[00:31:11] an argument that luke rayleigh could be the second most valuable bat in the lineup by the

[00:31:18] end of the year behind julio we've talked about garver we've talked about palonco i still think

[00:31:22] it's those two but if he keeps hitting like this this is a guy that's that good of a bat

[00:31:26] really well again you're talking about a 130 wrc plus guy last year is that that crazy

[00:31:33] what was palonco what was garver garver was a little bit higher garver was 138 i believe

[00:31:38] rayleigh was 130 can can rayleigh have a 130 playing every day against right against left

[00:31:46] handers too you know super small sample but he's actually hit against lefty so far he has

[00:31:52] he has uh the problem is i don't think the mariners it'll ever get to that point though

[00:31:57] where he's playing against lefties consistently i like i just don't think so it doesn't seem

[00:32:01] like that's ever that's going to be the strategy of the mariners that's not how this roster is

[00:32:04] built and if you're going to have a lefty outfielder playing against lefties it's going to be

[00:32:11] kanso probably it's yeah it's you and you have another once everyone's healthy you have

[00:32:18] another corner outfield right-handed bat who would hit instead of luke rayleigh would be

[00:32:22] dylan moore yeah okay fine maybe rayleigh's not going to play a ton against lefties

[00:32:27] but if there's a right-hander on the mound it should be rayleigh every day at this point going

[00:32:32] forward unless something drastic happens like with kanzone back if you're going to play him

[00:32:37] against lefties this is where the platoon needs to start between rayleigh and hanniger

[00:32:44] get mitch playing against lefties let rayleigh hit all the righties that like that that

[00:32:48] feels i know i'm not in the front office i know i'm not on the coaching staff or either

[00:32:52] of us for that matter but that feels about sure well you can always call everybody has

[00:32:59] everybody has the price every man has his price however that seems about as seamless of a

[00:33:04] decision as you can make what does hanniger do best he hits lefties what does rayleigh do

[00:33:08] best he hits righties rayleigh's scorching hot right now everybody's talked about making sure

[00:33:12] hanniger can play a full year healthy i think it's time to just transition to that and even

[00:33:19] if the maritors want to keep playing mitch hanniger you could make the same case for mitch

[00:33:22] garver at dh even though again you and i think garver is going to turn it around

[00:33:27] but say garver still is only good at hitting lefties this year and rayleigh's only good at

[00:33:32] hitting righties and you know that's your dh right there so there's options the options i

[00:33:37] think at the end of the day is what jerry depoto and scott service want yeah and

[00:33:41] luke rayleigh leaves the the option out there yeah he does and as we know garver's been

[00:33:46] hitting better the last couple weeks too he seems like he might be turning a corner here

[00:33:51] we'll have to see i'm very excited obviously we're excited for summer for obvious reasons

[00:33:56] but besides just the warm weather the sunshine and you know more baseball i think the the

[00:34:04] mariner's offense coming along in the summer months will make it even that much better so

[00:34:09] and luke rayleigh is a huge part of that let's get to our mailbag questions lial it's

[00:34:13] been a little while since we've done a mailbag but i'm excited to dive back into it

[00:34:18] just be on the lookout guys if you didn't get a chance to get your question in we try and do

[00:34:22] a mailbag once a month we'll put polls out on twitter we'll put them out on instagram

[00:34:27] we'll put them out on youtube as well keep your eyes peeled it'll be our our instagram

[00:34:31] story we'll tweet it out we'll post it on youtube not as youtube videos youtube post

[00:34:36] leave us uh leave us a question and you leave enough questions we'll get to your

[00:34:41] question and we'll answer in one of these mailbags always looking forward to answering

[00:34:45] some of these questions so first mailbag question lial comes from eric fitch on instagram and his

[00:34:53] question is who do you see being the next member of the mariner's hall of fame eric's guest is

[00:34:59] rick riz so this is going to happen eventually right i don't know when i don't know the exact

[00:35:07] there is no way when it's all said and done rick riz is not a mariner's hall of

[00:35:11] famer there's no way right yeah riz riz is going to be in there i it's between rick

[00:35:17] and kyle seger for who's next flip a coin do you flip a coin here's why i say that

[00:35:24] if the mariners wanted to put kyle seger into the mariner's hall of fame

[00:35:28] is he showing up is he accepting the award i honestly don't know at this point i can't

[00:35:35] confirm that i think i have the same reservations you two of that but since he is retired

[00:35:44] you could make the case that it would be easier for at least on the mariner's side to organize

[00:35:51] organize yes but the big organized to complete um usually with the hall of fame yeah you do want

[00:35:59] the person to be there and you know not to try and draw out conspiracies but when felix had his

[00:36:06] hall of fame inductment last year one very notable mariner did not make an appearance

[00:36:12] in person it did not make an appearance in the video saluting king felix it was kyle seger

[00:36:19] so and those guys were attached at the hip forever they played together for such a long

[00:36:26] time they were teammates for you know they were teammates when they were in the canoe era they were

[00:36:31] teammates through 26 days pre-cano well pre-coast so i was gonna say there were teammates pre-cano

[00:36:37] there were teammates in the canoe cruise era when they were in a little bit of a contention

[00:36:41] window even though they never made the playoffs and they were teammates in 2019 even

[00:36:44] when the rebuild was starting seger was there all the way through 21 those guys were together

[00:36:48] a long time and to see that kyle seger couldn't even take 15 seconds to record a video

[00:36:54] saying felix congrats on the award buddy i'm happy for you you deserve it all wish i could be there

[00:37:00] and send it over a text or email to somebody with the banners it would have taken like less

[00:37:05] than five minutes out of his day but he didn't do it i'm thinking if he can't even send a

[00:37:08] 15 second video is he showing up coming from north carolina to seattle for a ceremony i

[00:37:15] think this may be a few years away for kyle seger i think i think he still got it

[00:37:21] if assuming he still has his frustrations with the organization i think he's still got to give

[00:37:27] himself a couple years to simmer down a bit and then maybe he'll be more open to it which is

[00:37:32] why i would think if it's going to be a between those two i would say it's rick riz first

[00:37:37] i was thinking if if they were going to announce riz they would probably wait until

[00:37:40] the off season to announce he's being inducted so they can set the hall of fame announcement

[00:37:45] right during the season that's not something they would announce today and say oh by the

[00:37:50] way in the middle of august rick riz is getting inducted into the mariners hall of fame right

[00:37:55] right that's probably right but is kyle seger getting inducted next summer with an

[00:38:00] announcement with an announcement this winter i don't think so well kyle seger he should

[00:38:04] under a logical normal circumstance he should it would make sense he would match up with the

[00:38:09] timeline of retirement from the big leagues felix retired we say felix retired in 20

[00:38:15] give or take and he got inducted in 23 each row retired in 19 got inducted in

[00:38:21] 22 right 22 got that you're right so sounds right yeah so then kyle seger retiring after

[00:38:28] 21 could in theory the three-year window would line up to get inducted this august but

[00:38:36] yeah not since it hasn't been announced it's not happening so right it's it's a really

[00:38:41] interesting thing to think about so i'd say yeah odds on favorite is rick riz i mean rick

[00:38:44] right now should be a mariners hall of famer but it'll happen eventually right i would agree

[00:38:50] okay second question this is from david woody on instagram he says how many players will we have

[00:38:56] in the all-star game now we're gonna phrase this question as if it's right now for how

[00:39:02] the teams performed to this point if the all-star game was today who's in it so i'd say

[00:39:09] through the mariners of three all-stars be really hard to leave andres muñoz out right

[00:39:13] now for how he's pitching both lengthwise and effectiveness pick a starting pitcher logan

[00:39:19] gilbert has been the best starting pitcher on the mariners so far this season so i'm giving

[00:39:23] him the nod and then josh rojas right now is a major league all-star for how he has hit

[00:39:29] through the first month and a half i agree with all that those guys are on my list

[00:39:34] i had brice miller down too i don't know how many mariners arms from one rotation

[00:39:38] will get in but when brice miller is putting up the e.r.a. and the and the numbers that he's

[00:39:43] putting up right now he should be in very strong consideration that's for sure and even cowrally

[00:39:49] he's i'm not saying he's the favorite but he shouldn't be that far off he's got a real

[00:39:54] chance right now too what no he shouldn't yeah so those are the guys that would be on my

[00:40:00] list as of right now now if you ask us this question in a month will julio be on this list

[00:40:05] we sure hope so will other guys have a chance well george kirby or louise castillo have a much

[00:40:11] much lower e.r.a. and numbers that more reflect who they are as pitchers yeah good chance and

[00:40:18] those guys were in the all-star game last year they certainly have a chance to do it again

[00:40:22] but as of right now yeah i'm with you i would say the three guys would be rojas logan and

[00:40:27] andres muniz in julio's case he's not going to have the hometown what extra oomph to get

[00:40:33] in this year now a big part of the reason a big reason he was in the game last year is because

[00:40:39] he was in seattle he's not going to get the benefit of the doubt in texas so he's gonna have

[00:40:44] to he's gonna have to do this uh he's gonna have to he's gonna have to play significantly

[00:40:49] better over the next two months to earn himself an all-star spot because otherwise

[00:40:53] he's not he's not an all-star right now right our third question is from nate on instagram

[00:40:59] good running into you nate this weekend at the ballpark who's great running into you and your

[00:41:03] friends um he's asking i want lial and tj's most and least favorite baseball savant number right

[00:41:11] now i'm gonna give nate a little bit more of a pop than that this dude certified ball knower

[00:41:16] we sat with him we sat with yeah we sat with a whole group of guys that are very super good

[00:41:22] dudes follow the podcast nate included nate hopped on for some social media content so

[00:41:26] shout out to him and he was just happy to really get into the nitty-gritty of talking

[00:41:30] baseball which we love as you know as we know and he sends us this question yeah favorite

[00:41:35] and least favorite baseball savant numbers right now who nate also talked about being a

[00:41:39] big baseball savant guy so i would say my favorite it's hard to just pick one

[00:41:45] i really do like run value because it shows when a pitcher and a hitter is succeeding

[00:41:51] or not succeeding against certain pitches and it shows here's what they thrive at here's what

[00:41:57] they don't thrive at with every different offering that comes their way or is thrown out of their

[00:42:01] hand i think that's super interesting something that until a few years ago we never would have

[00:42:06] known we never would have known until a couple years ago that louise castillo's change-up which

[00:42:10] out of the eye always looked like the best pitch isn't as much of a thing anymore now it's

[00:42:15] that fastball baseball savants helped us realize that a lot over the last couple years

[00:42:20] which if we didn't have that information we may not definitively know that i would say run values

[00:42:24] there and then i do like the hard hit numbers with either hard hit rate or barrel rate just to

[00:42:29] show that do you guys really square up the ball or are you somebody like esac paredes who

[00:42:34] their profile doesn't make a lot of sense where you hit some home runs but you probably

[00:42:37] thrive from a short left field at tropicana field and in other ball parks maybe wouldn't

[00:42:43] thrive as much so i like those three numbers a lot i think they tell you a lot about a

[00:42:48] player and who they are least favorite i don't have a lot of least favorites on baseball savant

[00:42:53] just to pick one i went with arm value because you know what somebody's arm strength is

[00:42:57] i don't exactly know how to quantify arm value i'm sure it has to do with throwing

[00:43:01] runners out and the accuracy of your throws but it's not a huge sample size you get

[00:43:05] with that stuff you don't get that many opportunities to throw out runners

[00:43:08] so now that arm value is a bad stat but if i had to pick one that's what i went with

[00:43:13] so my favorite nate thanks again for the question i mean this is a really good and

[00:43:17] really thoughtful question that is literally right up loud and eyes alley and nate i know yours is

[00:43:22] too the quote from nate when we asked him is like hey do you want to do uh do you want to

[00:43:25] do some social media content you're going to get some some some players in mariners history

[00:43:31] and it was at you who was like so nate like let's just add are you a ball knower and he's

[00:43:35] like oh i got like five baseball savant taps up right now or like oh yeah this you're perfect

[00:43:40] for this yeah perfect um so okay so my favorite stat i like the catching metrics i think they're

[00:43:46] really unique and i don't think any other site quantifies catching quite like baseball savant does

[00:43:52] you have framing runs on other sites but you don't have the outlets other outlets doing like

[00:43:59] blocks above average caught stealing above average framing and pop time all in one

[00:44:04] catching metric so because of the uniqueness of that i think like it's it's the best way to

[00:44:10] quantify catchers so that's why it earns my spot i do love all the hard hit stuff

[00:44:15] but we didn't need to double up on that one uh my least favorite is a stat i've never once

[00:44:20] used and probably won't x woe becon i mean it literally looks like i'm just saying x woe

[00:44:26] bacon i think people like saying it that way it's essentially quality of contact x woe but

[00:44:32] on contact alone i'm sitting here thinking like uh like i i like the aspect of x woe that factors

[00:44:39] in the fact you strike don't make enough contact because if you strike out too much it's like yeah

[00:44:45] your quality contact should be good but you still strike out a lot so it kind of lowers

[00:44:50] your value a little bit and i think x woe becon uh like could you imagine like adam dunn

[00:44:56] like looking at the difference of those is like oh yeah this x woe becon is great and

[00:45:00] it's like well i still know he strikes out 35 percent of the time yeah no i'm with you on that

[00:45:06] i think that's a good answer i think this eventually lial just boils down to which

[00:45:11] stats do we use the most and which stats do we never use right yeah like wr wrc plus is not a

[00:45:19] savant stat which i would say that is both of our favorite stats i would say like my

[00:45:24] three favorite stats i think somebody asked us this once and i picked from each different

[00:45:28] kind of category i think i said wrc plus i said war and i said out above average just so you have

[00:45:33] like all encompassing you have offense and then you have defense but yeah wrc plus isn't on

[00:45:39] baseball savant so right so yeah they shouldn't well they have well they have they don't have

[00:45:44] wrc plus but they do have their overall like batting run value that's their offensive stat

[00:45:49] right and maybe in time that becomes more relevant but right now it's probably taking

[00:45:55] a back seat to some of the other stuff on savant which is fine it's if you don't use baseball

[00:46:00] savant i think you're missing out because there is so much knowledge that you can gain from being

[00:46:05] on that website fourth question this is on youtube it comes from at the connor joe trade

[00:46:10] he says when jp comes back do you think louise urias will be made available for a depoto

[00:46:16] trash to treasure minor league arm so my take on this is that i feel like there would be a

[00:46:23] little bit of an overpay because i think louise urias right now is like a certified big leaguer

[00:46:30] on this so like he has a defined role on this roster that he's plays and then he's played

[00:46:34] well this season and trading him for as described to like a like a sleeper a diamond in the rough

[00:46:40] minor league arm to perform well on the mariners wouldn't that not be an overpay

[00:46:45] for prospect like i think that would be so i just don't really i don't really see urias being

[00:46:51] the one to be offered up for a trade like that i agree i think urias has been a very very

[00:46:59] much contributing piece of this team this year and he's got his strengths too

[00:47:03] first off i think his defense has taken some real strides we've talked about that i think

[00:47:07] it's been much better than people anticipated it was going to be and he's hitting lefties

[00:47:13] i know with the injuries he's been forced to play against righties more which is unfortunate

[00:47:17] because it's really not his strength and his splits certainly tell that story he's OPSing

[00:47:22] well over 800 against lefties this year and now with JP on the verge of coming back you would

[00:47:27] think that urias is going to start to play in his role much more just like how we're saying

[00:47:33] Mitch Hanniger should transition to just hitting against lefties louise urias needs

[00:47:38] to go back to the role he was in where he's just hitting against lefties once everybody's

[00:47:41] healthy and when he's doing that he is very much a contributing piece to this team i agree

[00:47:46] i don't really know if there's a guy on the big league roster you would trade for something

[00:47:50] like that it would probably be a prospect for prospect swap if i'm going to be honest

[00:47:53] because either the big said big leaguer wouldn't have enough value or they'd have too much

[00:47:57] value i don't know if there's any of those real tweeners that are an obvious trade candidate

[00:48:03] right in conclusion i don't think louise urias is going anywhere no shout out by the way i

[00:48:07] tweeted this out for fun because it's an off day and i wanted to find something fun to tweet

[00:48:12] bet you a lot of guys a lot of you guys did not know this the guy on the mariners with

[00:48:17] the second most instagram followers louise urias second i am gonna bet that was not your first

[00:48:24] guess before i said that but is that is that like i would guess that's wbc related it's got

[00:48:31] to be he played on team mexico and he had a dramatic home run and off of you know off of

[00:48:37] roky sasaki too right yeah so maybe a bunch of like a lot of the japanese fans were like oh

[00:48:42] this guy's good right or just the fact it was off such a big household name like roky sasaki

[00:48:48] so yeah i would guess the wbc played a factor into that but yeah just kind of an interesting

[00:48:53] thing doesn't bars new bar now have over a million instagram followers yeah like larz new

[00:48:59] bar yeah guys who's now very good friends with show hey otani that probably helped yeah

[00:49:05] it probably helps yeah all right why don't you tee up the next question for us

[00:49:10] the next one is on instagram from kyle alford 32 the question is just for lyle goldstein

[00:49:18] if the astros lyle are still struggling near the deadline should the m's aggressively pursue

[00:49:24] kyle tucker hell yes we talked about this at length last week so i am thrilled to see

[00:49:35] and i want to shout out kyle for the question but i want to shout out everybody that sent in

[00:49:40] questions along this line because i got to tell you we sent out the invitation to send in

[00:49:45] questions for this mail bag and we got an overwhelming amount of response saying how do

[00:49:52] trade for kyle tucker you know what that means we're starting a fucking movement here on this

[00:49:57] podcast hell yeah we're starting a movement now is it gonna happen that's out of my control

[00:50:03] can we will it into existence on this pod well we're gonna try so to answer your question

[00:50:07] kyle if it's up to me hell yeah they're training for kyle tucker i love that energy

[00:50:14] what yes like like it's nice to hear we're resonating with people despite all those astros

[00:50:21] fans who i was fighting with last week and basically just trolling back and couldn't pick

[00:50:25] up on it on any sarcasm being the astros fans that were receiving it i am thrilled to hear

[00:50:31] that all our lovely awesome mariners fans are on board with the idea because why wouldn't you

[00:50:37] be this is one of the best bats in the sport you have a rotation that's deadly

[00:50:40] you want to win it all i'll tell you what go and get in a bat like that will do a lot and like i

[00:50:46] said last week you want a fuller breakdown of this you can go listen but kyle tucker not

[00:50:51] a boris guy no extension yet mirrors haven't extended anybody else in house you're telling

[00:50:57] me with a year and a half left you trade for kyle tucker that isn't a guy that immediately

[00:51:02] as he gets in the door you don't sit him down and say tell us what money you want we'll

[00:51:06] pay you what do you want as an extension because i'm doing it that simple yep it is

[00:51:12] it is pretty simple while we like all-star baseball players on our team yeah i mean he's

[00:51:18] not just an all-star that is that is one of the best bats in baseball like like let's make

[00:51:23] that definitively clear one of the best bats in baseball so yes trade for kyle tucker all

[00:51:28] right we got one more this is this is the last one and this is on youtube it's from jacob

[00:51:34] 7803 he says if the playoffs were tomorrow what would the best rotation and lineup look like

[00:51:42] for the mariners assuming full health we want to start off with this rotation so in the rotation

[00:51:50] i have in order castillo kirby gilbert miller and then brian wooze in the pen because in a

[00:51:57] playoff rotation you only need four starters or if you're really going to stretch it you

[00:52:01] only need three but i'm just going to say the mariners would use four at this point because

[00:52:05] starting pitching is their strength and they would go castillo kirby gilbert miller brian

[00:52:09] woo would be in the pen because we would imagine at that point he's going to be at his

[00:52:13] ending limit right so he may have a few innings left but it may be best used if he's

[00:52:19] needed in long relief as we've seen sometimes starts can get cut short in the postseason and

[00:52:23] guys don't last as long he may have to piggyback they may they may just want to use

[00:52:27] them as a bullpen weapon imagine brian woo in the bullpen in the postseason he can go two

[00:52:32] inning outings even if it's a one inning outing it's pretty good arm to have back there so yeah

[00:52:37] i'm with you i had the exact same list down assuming they'd go four deep i had it in that

[00:52:41] order too louise george logan brice miller but if they went three you'd probably see

[00:52:46] both miller and woo in the bullpen and you'd go louise george logan yeah yep and you again

[00:52:54] we can argue over the semantics of who's best but since castillo is the veteran of the group and

[00:52:59] you know he's been pitching pretty well he's getting the nod and oh by the way he's also

[00:53:03] had the most playoff success on the team pitching period so that's why he gets the nod

[00:53:09] the lineup is where it really gets interesting if we want to put the best nine players out

[00:53:15] there in a playoff lineup like just just bear bear with me as i read out the lineup

[00:53:23] i have written down so can we clarify before you do sure this is based off how guys are playing

[00:53:28] right now it's too hard to predict what everybody's going to be looking like in october if jorge

[00:53:35] palonco and mitch garver are back to their peak selves this lineup could look different

[00:53:39] but this is based off right now so here's the lineup jp leads off again assuming full health

[00:53:46] julio bats second josh rojas bats third cal raleigh bats cleanup mitch garver bats fifth

[00:53:53] jorge palonco bats sixth dom kanzone bats seventh ty france bats eight and luke raylee

[00:53:59] bats ninth that's what i have too it's a little bit of a funky lineup that's for sure

[00:54:06] i don't i don't know if luke raylee is exactly your typical nine hitter

[00:54:11] but it is what makes most sense with the lineup if josh rojas keeps hitting like this

[00:54:15] that's not a nine hitter that's a guy you want getting a lot of at bats and if jp is going

[00:54:20] to go back to the leadoff spot where does that leave rojas well you still got to hit

[00:54:25] him somewhat high and if palonco at the moment isn't really hitting the way we all expect him

[00:54:29] to hit why not hit rojas third yeah yeah it just sort of makes sense too and you push

[00:54:36] garver down in the lineup and cal in the cleanup spot i mean the lineup makes sense

[00:54:41] and again with all these players hitting well you can look at every single player in this lineup

[00:54:46] in c plus like a plus like either semi plus or actual plus bat up and down especially like

[00:54:54] ty france has been swinging it well lately the last week the powers really come on and he's

[00:54:57] hit an eighth right so like this is a lineup that can work like you said it's funky not

[00:55:02] pretty to look at it might not be your overall best defensive lineup but offensively this is

[00:55:09] about as good as you got right now i agree let us know as always we always want to hear from you

[00:55:15] guys so what would your lineup be what would your rotation be drop it in the comments below

[00:55:21] or any of the other questions if you have thoughts of your own drop it in the comments

[00:55:24] but especially with this one because this one you could jumble this a lot of different ways so

[00:55:28] based on the production right now how would you shuffle out the lineup if the playoffs were

[00:55:33] to start today let us know drop a comment below is our list good is it terrible you can

[00:55:37] tell us yeah do that if you're watching on youtube if you're listening go over to our

[00:55:42] youtube marine layer podcast on youtube find the video and leave us a comment underneath we'd

[00:55:47] really appreciate that trying to get as much as much feedback as possible yes so these mail

[00:55:52] bags are always fun and i will say if we didn't get to your questions got a solution for

[00:55:56] you every single week we go live 7 p.m sunday night 7 p.m pacific on youtube and instagram

[00:56:03] and the whole point of us doing it is to take your guys questions we're there to hang out talk

[00:56:08] some ball and answer whatever questions you guys have so if we didn't answer your question in

[00:56:12] the mail bag come send it to us on the live stream we will answer it there let's get to

[00:56:17] speak your mind speak your mind spoke that would be unwise what is necessary is never unwise

[00:56:30] all right la what is on your mind this week man i gotta tell you i don't know when the

[00:56:36] nfl schedule release became essentially a holiday but it's become a holiday in the sports world

[00:56:43] and it has incentivized social media teams to just be their most creative selves i'll tell you

[00:56:50] every team has started to just bring it in terms of the content they put out to release

[00:56:56] the schedule and some of it just gets crazy the seahawks did a fine job with it they

[00:57:01] what did they do they did why am i blanket on it the seahawks were creative with what they did but

[00:57:08] it's not like the titans going around doing the fan interviews to release the schedule

[00:57:13] or man is there a better social media team out there than the la chargers those guys

[00:57:21] i mean they're a great social team to begin with and people know that

[00:57:24] they really bring it on these schedule releases and they they killed it with theirs let's put

[00:57:29] it like that and like the timely aspect of some of the things they put on there were

[00:57:34] were remarkable remarkable how they probably getting there probably spent weeks preparing this

[00:57:41] and timely managed to keep it updated literally until release date within hours of the release

[00:57:47] date is is app is phenomenal content but here's a sleeper one speaking of la teams do you see

[00:57:53] the rams one this is one i could not stop watching i thought the rams as much as it pains

[00:57:59] me to to to gas up the los angeles rams they did a phenomenal job with theirs they had

[00:58:05] they had jb long sit down with sean mcveigh if you haven't seen the video and they essentially

[00:58:10] did trivia where sean mcveigh would answer a trivia question from every single one of their

[00:58:15] opponents and they'd go in order throughout the entire season it was so fascinating and it was

[00:58:20] like anything from like what play call did you make on this game and this year against that

[00:58:24] team or like tell me something about this team's history or like rank the top your top three

[00:58:30] players on this team of all time or something like that it's like crazy stuff like shawn mcveigh

[00:58:36] has to have one of the like he has to have like a like a 99th percentile brain yeah it's

[00:58:44] crazy i guess i'm used to seeing him do that at this point though maybe that's why i wasn't

[00:58:48] that surprised by it but yes it was very cool i'm too but we don't get to see that as

[00:58:52] much really like it was cool when he first was a head coach and i remember bleacher report

[00:58:58] went there to the training camp and they they were quizzing him and like we knew he had the

[00:59:03] brain like that but the fact they sat down for like a four minute video of him just ripping

[00:59:08] through questions and showing off was it was remarkable yeah it was the seahawks i was

[00:59:14] trying to remember what what they did i think they made like like really really in-depth

[00:59:18] cartoon drawings for each of their games it does that sound right i mean i'm pretty yeah like i'm

[00:59:22] looking at it right here i'm pretty sure that's what they did for each week as they were as they

[00:59:27] were doing a bunch of like in-depth sketches for what the game was going to be and it was

[00:59:32] certain characters for certain teams too like they made george kittle what's his name because

[00:59:36] he george kittle commented on the seahawks post when they made him what's his name

[00:59:40] stinky pete or whatever it's called um and and george kittle commented all right that's fair

[00:59:46] and um so yeah the seahawks were good with theirs but there's just some teams out there that are

[00:59:51] ultra ultra creative with it yeah like the rams like the titans the titans one really

[00:59:56] went viral last year the texans a couple years ago did did you ever play back the

[01:00:00] backyard sports as a kid on the computer backyard football backyard baseball so they

[01:00:04] did a backyard football pick a team like montage for the schedule i want to say two

[01:00:10] years ago and they had different players pop up and say a catchy line for each different game

[01:00:16] of the schedule so yeah teams get really creative with it and yeah shout out the

[01:00:20] charger maybe we should just say it like the the chargers putting harrison bucker in the

[01:00:26] kitchen on their schedule was unreal that went so viral so fast again like we're talking about

[01:00:34] the timely at like it was literally i had to do they had to fix it in 24 hours less

[01:00:38] less than that to put it in there and it just so casually it is it is absolutely remarkable like

[01:00:45] some of the some of the ideas that they come up with and that wasn't the only person they

[01:00:49] dragged in there it is oh it was so funny they did they dragged russ in there too they had a

[01:00:54] bunch of people yeah so it was good stuff but i will say dog if we're talking about the nfl

[01:00:59] teams this week not every nfl team knocked whatever they were doing this week out of the

[01:01:03] park my speaker mind this week is the new york giants can we just need to address the elephant in

[01:01:10] the room the new york giants released new jerseys today on thursday these might be the worst

[01:01:18] jerseys i've ever seen these look like rugby uniforms and the new york giants will be wearing

[01:01:22] them this year and i'm gonna be honest if they wore these on the field i have no idea

[01:01:28] playing they're really bad jerseys and daniel jones wearing the jerseys was getting ripped

[01:01:34] apart too wait do you know what they're what are they saluting with this

[01:01:40] do you know i didn't even see i just thought they chose they decided to have an alternate

[01:01:44] jersey and botched it miserably century red commemorative uniform inspired by our history

[01:01:51] for today was the giants tweet um yeah man they could have done literally anything else

[01:01:58] anything not good that the nfl doesn't really have a jersey problem like that most of the

[01:02:03] jerseys are simple and you know what teams are applying like theme like think of the craziest

[01:02:08] nfl jerseys i'm thinking of like the bumblebee uniforms for the steelers those were kind of odd

[01:02:13] but they like still worked they were the colors of the steelers you have the color rush

[01:02:18] were quirky but at least every team had to wear them like no this is a choice by the new york

[01:02:23] giants a choice to design these uniforms and wear them and despite the fact that like they're

[01:02:30] wearing gold pants where's gold in the new york giants color palette i don't know right

[01:02:37] non-existent it's like the puke uniforms that the buccaneers wear i that was the other

[01:02:43] uniform i was thinking of those orange bucks jerseys right yeah yeah yep like what what happened

[01:02:50] to like just going back and wearing a classic uniform like when the dolphins do it with their

[01:02:54] old unis they look great i know the giants have classic unis too but just to mess it up to this

[01:03:00] extreme is remarkable not good no it's not well would you prefer the giants jerseys that

[01:03:09] they just unveiled or the fanatics jerseys in big and major league baseball this year

[01:03:16] rather play naked i don't know how to respond to that well you got a picture two

[01:03:23] two pretty bad products i think this is all natural i think i would go with the fanatics

[01:03:33] jerseys those giants jerseys are really bad yeah at least the colors aren't messed up on

[01:03:38] the fanatics jerseys they got the colors right i think but not the giant not the giants ones and

[01:03:44] what are they doing with this helmet it looks like a it's like the michigan wolverines helmet

[01:03:49] but it's red and blue instead where did that come from yeah they're gonna have some questions

[01:03:57] to answer about this one like red is never a primary color on the uniforms and yet these

[01:04:02] things are covered in red yeah i don't know not good not great giants no it's not and

[01:04:08] think of how much time they spent designing these uniforms just for as soon as they put it out in the

[01:04:14] public people were like yeah this is dog shit and you sit in there and think we spent months on

[01:04:20] this uniform that happens with teams sometimes they'll release jerseys and they'll just get

[01:04:25] absolutely shredded it happens and the NFL like i know they're just doing this to sell more

[01:04:30] jerseys ultimately it looks cool on tv once you get more people to buy a bunch of jerseys but

[01:04:36] like the only response i have to this is like this jersey would look really good at Coachella in like

[01:04:41] five years like that's your default for every bad jersey isn't it Coachella yeah it's going

[01:04:46] to be a Coachella jersey because you just want something unique and to Coachella's credit

[01:04:51] colorful as well you stand out in a crowd right that's true well let's count and see how

[01:04:57] many of these giants jerseys we see at Coachella next year right when you and i go

[01:05:02] yeah right podcast from there yeah that'd be quite a podcast yeah well and we can count how

[01:05:07] many giants jerseys we see so that sounds like a plan all right that'll just about wrap it up

[01:05:14] for this edition of the marine layer podcast you guys know the drill if you want to listen

[01:05:17] to the full-form podcast you can do so wherever you get your audio pods make sure to download

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[01:05:36] as always we thank you guys for tuning in we'll talk to you soon